Process infrastructure is one of the most critical parts of a refinery plant or offshore platform. The topology of modern process infrastructure includes FOUNDATION Fieldbus, Profibus PA, WirelessHart and HART Multiplexer etc.
HART (Highway Addressable Remote Transducer) is the most broadly supported protocol in the world for process industry as there are 40 Million HART devices being installed worldwide. But according to records, only 10% of these HART devices are connect to HART compatible control systems. End user should expand the use of HART devices in order to perform specialized operations like:
- Asset Management
- Predictive Maintenance
- Data Logging
- Partial-stroke Testing
Benefits of HART
Problems of Conventional Serial HART Multiplexers:
- Slow scanning time due to large quantities of I/Os in the network
- Limitation of RS485’s transmission speed
- Work based on “Master and Slave” principle
Above are some of the challenges faced when using a conventional RS485 Hart Multiplexer and they will become worse if there are more than 1000 devices. Ethernet Multiplexer can solve this problem as featured below.
Fig 1: Ethernet Hart Multiplexer
Ethernet Multiplexer Features and Benefits:
- Works with existing standard IP infrastructure
- Supports higher communication speed up to 1GB/s
- Easy integration into Ethernet based Host system without additional conversion
- Provides faster start up and device configuration
- Flexibility in network design like redundant Ethernet
Fig 2: Hart IP Network Overview
If you need any technical advice on your current project, feel free to contact us. I believe we can be your trusted partner to provide suitable solutions to fit your applications!